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PowerPoint Presentation by Greg Austin

Student and Staff Data from the California Healthy Kids Data System

Slides 1-19
Slides 20-58

Slide 1

Student and Staff Data from the California Healthy Kids Data System

Gregory Austin, PhD
gaustin@wested.org
June 23, 2006

Slide 2

Presentation

• Overview to the CHKS Student and Staff School Climate surveys and their use as school improvement tools
• Data on the level of school assets and connectedness in California schools
• The relationship of CHKS resilience indicators to API and SAT-9 scores and other measures of academic performance and school behavior.
• Staff perceptions of staff-student relationships and the school learning environment.

Slide 3

Tools for School Improvement

Though mandated in compliance with NCLB Title IV requirements, the CHKS data collection system provides a wealth of information from students and staff to inform and guide school improvement efforts. Including:

• Student behaviors linked to achievement
• School climate and environment
• Barriers to learning
• Teacher-student and staff relations
• School connectedness and motivation to learn

Funded by CDE’s Safe and Healthy Kids Program Office

Slide 4

CHKS Student Survey

• Nation’s largest, most comprehensive local student behavior data system, grades 5-12 (began 1997; mandated fall 2003)
• Fulfills NCLB Title IV data requirements
• Designed to:
  (a) meet multiple data needs of local, regional, and state agencies;
  (b) reduce survey burden and costs on schools
• Assess youth needs and guide program decision making
• Improve youth well-being and achievement

Slide 5

Photo of the California Healthy Kids Survey Web site

Everything is on the Web site:  http://www.wested.org/hks/ (Outside Source)

Slide 6

Requirements (CDE)

• Biennial representative district survey
• Grades 5, 7, 9, & 11, and Continuation
• Voluntary, anonymous student participation with parental permission
• Standardized administration procedures and protections
• Provide results for aggregation into single database

Slide 7

Database Size

• 85+% of districts have valid school-level data
• Participating districts represent 95% of state enrollment
• 90% of counties coordinate for representative data

Slide 8

• Core (Required)
  • Demographics
  • School grades and truancy
  • ATOD Use and Violence
  • Exercise, Eating, Height/weight, & Asthma Risk
• Resilience and Youth Development Module (RYDM)
  • School Connectedness & External Assets in School/Community (Required)
  • External Assets in Home & Peer Group
  • Internal Assets
• Four supplementary modules (tobacco, AOD use/violence, sexual behavior, physical health)

Slide 9

Survey Content (continued)

• Single Elementary covers Core & RYDM
• Custom modules allow questions of local interest to be added — on any subject
  • Enable schools to incorporate program evaluation questions to determine what is working!
  
  Not just a Survey — A Data Collection System

Slide 10

Core School Indicators (41 Items)

• Grades received (1)
• Classes skipped/cut (1)
• Transience (1)
• AOD use at school; AOD problems with school work and behavior (9)
• Violence perpetration & weapons possession (3)
• Victimization and harassment (11)
• Perceived safety (1)
• School environmental assets (9)
• School connectedness (5)

Slide 11

Assessing Barriers to Learning

CHKS identifies health-related barriers to learning to guide promotion of LEARNING SUPPORTS:

• The nonacademic resources and instructional strategies that give students the physical, social, emotional, and intellectual support needed to learn.

Learning is impaired when students are:

• Tired or restless
• Malnourished or sick
• Stressed or fearful, bullied or abused
• Under the influence of alcohol or drugs

Slide 12

Resilience and Youth Development Module (RYDM) Theoretical Framework & Scales

Slide 13

(table omitted)

Slide 14

Internal Asset Scales

Slide 15

School Connectedness Scale

Assesses personal feelings about the school, versus  perceived  environmental assets by School Asset Scales.

• I feel close to people at this school.
• I am happy to be at this school.
• I feel like I am part of this school.
• The teachers at this school treat students fairly.
• I feel safe in my school.

Add Health research shows:

• School connectedness associated with improved grade-point average and lower out-of-school suspension one year later. 
• Most powerful predictor of low risk behavior.

Derived from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Questions ask "How strongly do you agree or disagree…"

Slide 16

Staff School Climate Survey (SCS)

• Required biennially along with student CHKS in compliance with NCLB
• All teachers, administrators, staff grades 5 & above (voluntary)
• Low-cost, online, easy-to-use
• Short (43 Core items answered by all)
• Comparability with CHKS student data
• Key school reform variables
• System for collecting other data - Add questions
• Adopted by National Evaluation of Safe Schools Healthy Students Grantees, 2005+

Slide 17

SCS Core Content (43 items)

• Positive Learning Environment (24-item scale)
  • Staff-student relationships & school connectedness
    (6 items)
  • School norms and standards (9 items)
  • Student behaviors that facilitate learning (9 items)
• Staff and student safety (9 items)
• School rules/policies implementation (2 items)
• Impact student AOD use (3 items)
• Adequacy health/prevention services (3 items)

Slide 18

What SCS Data Will Tell You

• Is school an inviting and supportive learning environment with high standards?
• Are students well-prepared, able & motivated to learn?
• Are students connected to school? 
• Is school a supportive, respectful place to work?
• Do staff feel responsibility for school improvement? How much is academic achievement a priority? 
• Do staff feel safe?
• What are the perceived barriers to learning?

Slide 19

Total School Assets

Line graph omitted

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Slide 20

Percent High in Each School Asset

Line graph omitted

Slide 21

Trends: Total School Assets 2003-05

Line graph omitted

Slide 22

Trends: High in Three School Assets 2003-05

Line graph omitted

Slide 23

School Connectedness

Line graph omitted

Slide 24

Trends in School Connectedness 2003-05

Line graph omitted

Slide 25

What are the affects of variations in resilience on annual standardized test scores in California?

image of WestEd publication "How are Student Health Risks and Resilience" publication

Slide 26

CDE (via Stuart Foundation) commissioned examination of two questions:

• Are California students in low performing schools exposed to more health risks and fewer development supports (assets) than students in other schools? (Concurrent or Cross-sectional)
• How are student health risks and resilience assets related to the progress of California schools in raising test scores? (Longitudinal)

Slide 27

CHKS/Test Score Analyses

• CHKS (combined grades)
  • Core Module (1,700 schools, 800,000 students)
  • Resilience Module (600 schools)
• Academic Performance Index (API) scores - concurrent analyses (Year 1)
• SAT-9 scores by curriculum area - longitudinal analyses
• 35 health variables
• School-level analysis using regression techniques
• Adjusted for racial/ethnic composition, parental education, ELL students, free/reduced meals, and baseline test scores (when appropriate)

Slide 28

Overall Findings

• Concurrent:  Students in low performing (API) schools were characterized by more health risks and fewer external assets than students in higher performing schools - even after accounting for socioeconomic characteristics.
  • In 75% of measures
• Longitudinal:  SAT-9 test score gains were larger one year later in schools whose students reported high levels of physical well-being, safety, and resilience, and low levels of substance use, violence, and poor mental health - controlling for baseline scores and SES. 
  • In 40% of measures

Slide 29

High in Total School Assets and API

Line graph omitted

Slide 30

High in School Caring Relationships and API

Line graph omitted

Slide 31

High in School High Expectations and API

Line graph omitted

Slide 32

High in School Meaningful Participation and API

Slide 33

School Caring Relationships and 1-year change in SAT-9

Graph omitted

Slide 34

School High Expectations and 1-year change in SAT-9

Graph omitted

Slide 35

Meaningful Participation in Community and 1-year change in SAT-9

Graph omitted

Slide 36

Methodological Limitations

• Limited to secondary schools that conducted CHKS before required (less representative)
  • Especially applies to resilience data, which may be affected by a selection bias.
• Non-experimental data.
  • Other unmeasured factors could account for relationship of assets to changes in test scores
• School-level analysis.
  • Results need confirmation using student-level data.
• Did not examine how change in resilience related to change in SAT-9

Still, results indicate that promoting school environmental assets and school connectedness, as measured by the CHKS, may be an important component of any effort to turn around low performing schools and improve test scores.  

Slide 37

Other Student Data Linking

Assets/Connectedness to School Performance Indicators

Slide 38

Skipping School/Classes and School Assets

"During the past 12 months about how many times did you skip school or cut classes?" (Graph omitted)

Slide 39

Poor Grades (D/F) & School Assets

"During the past 12 months, how would you describe the grades you mostly received in school? (Mostly Ds & Fs)" (Graph omitted)

Slide 40

School Connectedness: Low Performing Schools (LP) vs. State Average (Av)

Graph omitted

Slide 41

Asset Promotion Reduces Involvement in Risk Behaviors that are Barriers to Learning

Slide 42

Bringing Weapons to School and School Assets

"During the past 30 days, on how many days did you carry [a knife, a gun, a club, any other weapon] on school property?" (Graph omitted)

Slide 43

Drunk/high at School 2+ Times & School Assets

Graph omitted

Slide 44

Substance Abuse Affects Learning Environment for All

9% of 9th graders, Heavy Drug Users are responsible for:

• 21% of school fighting,
• 24%-27% of school vandalism, D/F’s, and chronic truancy (once a month or more),
• 34% of weapons possession.

18% of 9th graders, Heavy Drug/Alcohol Users are responsible for:

• About 30% of fighting and vandalism.
• About 40% of chronic truancy, D/F’s, and weapons possession.

Slide 45

Resilience and Reducing Learning Barriers

• Resilience promoting strategies targeting youth involved in, or at high rise of, substance abuse and other problem behaviors may not only reduce odds of school failure but improve the learning environment of the whole school. 
• This would be especially important in low performing schools heavily impacted by substance abuse.

Slide 46

Staff School Climate Survey:

Staff-Student Relations
Learning Environment Indicators

Slide 47

Do Schools Have a Positive Learning and Working Environment (SCS Scale)?

Graph omitted

Slide 48

Percent High in Learning Environment Subscales

Graph omitted

Slide 49

Percent High on Learning Scales and  API

Graph omitted

Slide 50

Three Resilience Indicators

Graph omitted

Slide 51

Three Learning Indicators Percent Strongly Agree

Graph omitted

Slide 52

Do Staff Feel Students Are Motivated to Learn?

Graph omitted

Slide 53

Do Schools Promote Resilience and Assets?

Graph omitted

Slide 54

Conclusions

• The CHKS data on resilience are important for guiding and monitoring school improvement efforts.
• Youth development and successful learning are complimentary and synergistic processes.
• Students’ capacity for learning cannot be optimally engaged if their basic developmental needs are not being met.
• Promoting resilience will help foster school connectedness and reduce involvement in risk behaviors that are barriers to learning, thereby enhancing learning motivation and the likelihood of academic improvement.
• The greatest need and challenge lie in high schools.

Slide 55

A School Climate that Motivates to Achieve…

• Provides students with supportive, caring connections to adults at school who model and support healthy development.
• Provides clear and consistent messages that students can and will succeed.
• Involves students in meaningful
  activities and decision-making
  in school

Slide 56

Now What? Listening to Students Workshop!

Conducting Focus Groups with Students to Improve Understanding of CHKS Data and How to Promote Positive Student Behavioral, Health, and Academic Outcomes
Bonnie Benard & Carol Burgoa

Slide 57

Implementing Resilience/Youth Development Strategies in Our Schools

• CHKS Resilience & Youth Development Handbook
• Getting Results 5
• Resiliency: What We Have Learned
• "Turnaround Teachers and Schools"
• Student Fishbowl/Focus Groups

Slide 58

Listening to Students

Educational change, above all, is a people-related phenomenon for each and every individual. Students, even little ones, are people too. Unless they have some meaningful (to them) role in the enterprise, most educational change, indeed most education, will fail. I ask the reader not to think of students as running the school but to entertain the following question: What would happen if we treated the student as someone whose opinion mattered in the introduction and implementation of reform in schools?

Michael Fullan,
The New Meaning of Educational Change
1991

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